by Starhawk
Now it’s time to open the circle formally, to thank and say good-bye to any powers that were invoked either in the creation of sacred space or later in the ritual, and, finally, to say good-bye to each other: “The circle is open, but unbroken. May the peace of the Goddess go in our hearts. Merry meet and merry part, and merry meet again!”
Once in a Month
“Once in a month, and better it be when the moon is full, shalt thou gather in some secret place, and celebrate Me, who is Queen of the Wise.” So begins the Charge of the Goddess. The traditional, private celebration of Witchcraft follows the cycles of the moon, and when the moon is full, Witches gather together in living rooms, by seaside bonfires, on hilltops where drumming can go on all night, or under the lacy moon shadow of orchards. Together we celebrate the great cycles of nature and of our miracle bodies and remember that we are all connected in the great web of life. We call down the gleaming, pearly, luminous moonlight into each and every one of us and remember to pass a kiss: “Thou are Goddess”…“Thou are God.” The hard part is opening the circle and going home again.
For nine years, when my old circle met by moonlight, our rituals followed more or less the same structure. Each full-moon ritual was quite different from any other, depending on what was going on in our lives, in our health, in the weather, and in the world around us, but we always followed the same basic steps to create it. After we gathered and visited informally for a bit, each person would report briefly on what was going on in her life. As we got to know each other, these rounds became very powerful, intimate, and supportive, as we had a strong background on each woman’s process, her dreams, her gifts, her troubles. As we listened deeply to each other, themes would emerge: resonance, dissonance, longing, joy. Soon we would know what we needed to do together.
Often the ritual magic we agreed on was something very simple: a trance together, a saltwater purification, a dance, a tarot reading. We would create sacred space together, taking turns with the invocations, and singing together, toning and raising power. Often, each woman would take a turn coming to the center of the circle. We would all work together with our voices, with movement, with visualization, to pull the beautiful moonlight down into our sister, blessing her as she made wishes for herself and opened herself to insight and inspiration from the Great Lady who sailed the sky.
Doing magical work in a circle of friends isn’t always easy or only fun. As in any group, there are conflicts, misunderstandings, even tragedies. There are times when we feel we could have done better had we been wiser. But we wouldn’t have become wiser if we hadn’t tried. We dared to love one another and to celebrate our soul-lives in the way we longed to. We supported and strengthened one another for years and gained precious skills and insights, along with many ecstatic and transformative experiences, and deep love, support, and understanding. Finally the tides of our lives and of time carried us away from each other. Just as bubbles form and rise and break only to re-form in boiling water, circles form and rise and break in a community, only to reform and rise again.
Some circles and covens also meet at the moon’s quarters (once a week, more or less). Because of the busy schedules of most modern Witches, these circles often meet on a particular night of the week rather than strictly following the moon. The waxing quarter moon is a good time for magic that strengthens and nourishes change that is already under way. The waning quarter is a good time for the release of things that are passing out of our lives or that we want to get rid of. The dark moon is an excellent time for dreaming, scrying, trancing, and visualizing of all kinds. In the dark lies the potential, the power of all possibilities. Here in secret a seed is planted deep within, which can grow to fullness as the moon turns and waxes again.
The Solar Holidays
In addition to the private moon rituals, Witches also create public, community ritual to celebrate the cycle of the sun. This is the background of many pre-Christian Pagan holidays that are still widely remembered. At Yule, evergreen boughs are brought inside to decorate the house and remind us that although nature seems dead in the winter, life is eternal. On Halloween, ghosts and spirits haunt the night, and at Eostar (spring equinox), eggs and rabbits remind us of the bursting fertility of nature and our own spring fever. The solstices and equinoxes and the cross-quarter days halfway between them mark the solar year into eight equal parts, each of which, for ancient agricultural people, had its own work, play, magic, and spirit.
The Waxing Year
The new sun is born on the night of Winter Solstice. On that night we vigil by bonfires and in living rooms, as we would with a laboring woman, and the dark winter earth gives birth to the new sun. At Brigid, February 2, we celebrate the first perceptible return of light and warmth by making pledges to the goddess Brigid. These pledges are seeds we plant inside ourselves for our growth during the year.
At Eostar we celebrate the Spring Equinox by decorating eggs and planning an egg hunt for the children, followed by community ritual focused on balance, as the night and day reach their perfectly even moment. Then comes May 1—May Day or Beltane—which we celebrate with a traditional maypole, weaving the magic of community as the beautiful ribbons wind the pole, and as we cross and recross one another in the pattern of the dance. We also leap over a bonfire together, in twos and threes, families, couples, friends, covens, work groups, as we renew and purify our vows to one another.
The Waning Year
At Summer Solstice, the sun crosses the threshold into the darkening time of year, and we celebrate his going by burning the Wicker Man. We weave and build a great figure out of natural materials and tie on old spells, completed work, symbols of things in ourselves that we are ready to let go of. When we are ready, we throw it onto a great bonfire. Now we are “walking the dark,” turning inward toward completion and release, after the expansion and growth of the previous six months. At Lugnasad, August 1, we celebrate the wake of the Sun King, grieving for the waning year and offering him our prayers and our company as he walks the dark, going before us toward the Shining Isle, making a way for us mortals, who must, in time, follow in his footsteps.
At the Fall Equinox we celebrate harvest home with a community feast and the warmth of friendship. We draw inward toward our hearths, and the weather begins to turn. And finally, at Halloween, we celebrate the highest holy day of the Witches, when the veil is thin and the living and the dead can communicate easily in trance and dream. Now we can travel in trance to the Shining Isle, Avalon, to meet the beloved dead. We walk in trance with the Goddess in the apple orchard where leaf and bud and blossom grow together on the tree. For now, as the dark of the year triumphs, time runs differently, and past, present, and future meet, and all things are possible. Together we create our dreams for the coming time, casting wishes into the growing dark for healing for our spirits, for our watersheds, for our communities, for the earth herself and all her creatures. And we dance the Spiral Dance of rebirth, raising a great cone of power, that all life may thrive. So we dream the dark until Winter Solstice, and the rebirth of the sun again, on another cold morning as drums and songs awaken the earth and sky.
The Thresholds
Witches also celebrate the great life transitions with ritual. As a pregnant woman approaches labor, we circle and sing to her and to the baby, blessing them on their way. Many of our babies are born in circle, as coveners and dear friends hold circle around the laboring woman and celebrate as the child is born. A few weeks or months later, when mother and child are ready, the baby is presented to the community at a Wiccaning.
My circle always celebrated with a “flying up” ritual when a child made the transition from little kid to big kid at about ten or eleven years. Maturing girls can be supported with a first-blood ritual, and boys also receive the support of community as they stand on the threshold of manhood. Lovers are celebrated as they take vows with one another at a handfasting ceremony.
When mature women and men are called to take personal vows of service to
the Goddess, we celebrate with an initiation rite. When a woman reaches menopause, her transition is celebrated in a croning ritual. And finally, we support our community members as they face the final threshold of mortal life with healing rituals for the ill or for the dying and memorial celebrations. Many rituals, songs, and meditations for celebrating these thresholds in the Reclaiming tradition can be found in Circle Round and The Pagan Book of Living and Dying.
Facing Fear
As beginners considering taking up a practice of Goddess religion, we may face considerable reluctance because of our fear of what others may say and because of legitimate fear of reprisals and repression. In our story, the whispered accusations against Rose grow, and Rose is condemned to death by burning. Facing death, and the fear of death, is a part of initiation rites for Witches, shamans, and medicine people all over the world. Rose’s initiatory journey is no different; it is not complete until she faces the inevitability of her own death, the final step to adulthood for any mortal.
The Burning Times
People today who may wish to begin to celebrate in the Goddess traditions and who may wish to organize their lives to respect the earth and all forms of life must also face fear. It is no accident that we must try to resurrect the practices of Goddess religion from bits and shards of broken tradition, from fairy stories and Mother Goose, from unexplained habits of language, gesture, and superstition. In recent history, religious practices based on the earth and on respect for the web of life have been persecuted all over our planet.
From the burning of the Witches in Europe, to the murder of countless native people who would not “convert” to Christianity, to the outlawing of the drum voices of the kidnapped Africans under slavery, nature-based religions, along with their wisdom, their stories, their medicinal traditions, and their spiritual practices, have been repressed and, in some cases, driven underground.
Historians disagree about how many Witches were actually burned in Renaissance Europe. Estimates have ranged from 100,000 to 9 million, but today most historians tend toward lower figures. In a way, it doesn’t really matter, because if even a single woman were tortured and then burned alive in front of her agonized friends and family for the crime of honoring the Goddess, it would create terror and horror that would long outlast her cries. The nature-based spiritual practices of many cultures became secrets, passed down along with vows of secrecy, or passed down only to family members, or not passed down at all.
Even now, at the turn of the millennium, when women and men try to revive the beliefs of their ancestors, they meet opposition. Today, there are still people preaching the medieval doctrine “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.” Conservative voices claim that the first amendment of the Constitution protects only the right to practice “legitimate” religions. Witches have had to fight for custody of our children, for our jobs, and to defend ourselves from harassment and threats of all kinds in our communities.
And so Rose’s story continues to be a template for the final step in our study of the elements of magic: continuing to practice while facing fear. As Rose is imprisoned and then carried to the stake in the executioner’s cart, she continues sewing and sewing. And at the final moment, her allies appear “out of the blue,” unexpectedly, from far away. The swans beat out the flames and surround her; the old woman has saved her babies; the wood of the fire itself rises up to her in leaf and bloom.
So, too, when we begin to reclaim the Goddess traditions that are our right inheritance from our ancestors, unexpected help appears and great forces arise to protect us. The last twenty years have seen a major shift in legal, religious, and media relationships with Witchcraft.
The Parliament of World Religions, and the United Religions Initiative, the two international, interfaith organizations begun and supported by mainstream religions, include in their membership and as signatories to their documents many Pagans and Witches. The first amendment to the Constitution, which has long guaranteed freedom of religion in the United States, was recently tested when the Witches in the U.S. military wanted to practice openly. Although there was an outcry from conservatives, the military stood by the constitutional right of the soldiers to a chaplain and religious practices of their choice. Even the penal system, which also allows inmates a chaplain of choice, has begun allowing Witches to do religious work in prisons in many states.
In all these areas, we owe a great debt to the Native American religions, which provided legal tests of these principles in the military and the penal system. We also owe a debt to other Pagan groups who’ve focused on these issues, such as Covenant of the Goddess, a legally recognized religious organization since 1975. Reclaiming is also a nonprofit religious organization, recognized as such by the IRS.
M. Macha Nightmare is a Reclaiming Witch who travels and speaks, doing public information outreach for Witchcraft. She has been approached by groups as wide-ranging as the Wall Street Journal, the hospice movement, and the biodiversity movement to represent Witches in discussions of religious and spiritual diversity.
There is now a strong nationwide community, connected through the Internet, watching for discrimination and unjust attacks on Witches. When these occur, public pressure and legal defense are immediate, with support arriving as it did for Rose from unexpected and distant places. On July 4, 1999, thirty-five Pagan and Witchcraft organizations cosigned a press release that was sent out all over the country, to media, legislators, and religious organizations, announcing our unity and our determination to protect our right to practice in the military. Even a few years ago, this would have been difficult to attain.
The Internet has been a tremendous resource for the Pagan and Witchcraft communities, making it possible for people who may be isolated to discover just how much support and community they actually have.
Witches and Pagans work freely in many open-minded church and environmental groups. People who are considering beginning a personal practice in the Goddess traditions may want to investigate their local Unitarian church. They may find Witches already practicing there. The Covenant of Unitarian Universalist Pagans (CUUPS) now has almost seventy chapters listed on its Web site.
But although there has been tremendous progress, each person still has to make a difficult decision for themselves about how open or discreet to be about their interest in, or practice of, Witchcraft. It may be frightening to begin a widely misunderstood and slandered spiritual practice. So take a moment to try these two meditations, alone or with your circle.
Exercise: Asking Your Fear Its Name
Create sacred space, and put a candle and a bowl of salt water in the center of the circle. As you gaze into the candle flame, allow yourselves to enter a light trance state. You can take turns asking the following questions.
Is there fear in your body of being called a Witch? Where in your body is it? What color is it? How big is it? Ask it to tell you its name.
Is there fear in your body of the intimacy and honesty in circle? Where in your body is it? What color is it? How big is it? Ask it to tell you its name.
Is there fear in your body of your own psychic and intuitive abilities? Where in your body is it? What color is it? How big is it? Ask it to tell you its name.
Is there fear in your body of powerful women? Of being a powerful woman? Where in your body is it? What color is it? How big is it? Ask it to tell you its name.
Is there fear in your body of actual attack and reprisal from others? Where in your body is it? What color is it? How big is it? Ask it to tell you its name.
When you have asked all the questions, allow your fear to begin to make some sounds. Release the energy that came up during the exercise into the salt water as your voices rise into howls, groans, four-letter words—whatever comes. When these have peaked and died down, offer each other some love and care. A group back rub would be perfect, where each person gives the next a light massage around the circle.
Remind each other that no matter what life brings, you don’t have t
o face it alone. Remind each other that the natural world and the spirit world and the human world are full of allies and of teachings and of powers that will help. Remember that sometimes we are most afraid of the things we most desire, like being powerful, intimate, and in touch with our intuition.
When you are ready, bless the food and drink. Help each other, fill each other’s plates, offer each other tasty morsels. Feed each other. As you eat and drink, talk a little about what you found in the exercise. None of us need face fear alone.
Exercise: The Glass Half Full
For this exercise, you will need a favorite cup or glass and plenty of dark-colored juice or some other liquid that you would like to drink. Create sacred space, alone or with your circle. Fill your cups half full. Gaze into the cups, and look for your reflections on the surface of the juice. It may take a moment to find them. You may need to adjust the lighting or move the candles, but you can find your reflection in the cup.
When you have found it, gaze for a time, and let yourself enter a light trance. Take a moment to think about the empty part of the cup. There may be areas in your life where you are missing the support you would like to have for your spiritual practice. You may even face opposition and criticism. Ask yourself where in your life you wish you had more support or more security. Notice how, although the cup is half empty, your reflection still arises on the surface of the liquid.
Now take a moment to think about the part of the cup that is full. There are parts of your life where you do have support and understanding. Otherwise you would never have gotten this far. Although it may not be all you want, nevertheless, like the liquid in your cup, it is enough for you to show up in it. Ask yourself where in your life you find support and security.